Productivity for cheap

[Guest]

I am looking for a laptop for school for under $500. I am in college, so i need it to be able to handle basic productivity tasks, such as Office and multiple tabs of Chrome. Any suggestions?

[The Sloth]

used Thinkpad, with 2nd or 3rd gen i7. 

[flibberdipper]

Used Thinkpad/Latitude (with the ｅｘｔｅｎｄ ｄｏｎｇ battery) with some flavor of i5 (or i7 if the price is right).

[Metal_Kitty]

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/ - not sure but i think they should ship to the US - 

I got This laptop HP 15-ay110na Laptop (15.6 inch, Intel Core i5-7200U, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, Windows 10) - Turbo Silver  for less than £200 off of their website (laptops direct) and if you scour the site properly - you can find some really good deals... 

Grade A1 - basically means someones had it for less that a week and returned it - or it is an ex display model when you search refurbished - but do shop around...

Look at anywhere that sells refurbished laptops - 

 

[Zebedeeboing]

Basic productivity, go with second hand every time  should be able to pick up some steals. Just try to get something with at least dual core with a decent clock speed and you'll be laughing. Getting a reasonably popular model like the thinkpads mentioned above it a good idea as third party batteries and chargers are easy to get hold of (the key issue with used mobile hardware for me). 

 

Think about the size factor that you want. If you're taking it into school for notes, something lighter will be a priority. People usually prioritise smaller form factors for travel but that's a poor economy. You need something big enough to use practically, type on comfortably and size is rarely an issue. Even beefier laptops will fit in a bag/rucksack required for a smaller one. 

 

Pick a model from a few generations ago and you will probably find a lot of resellers from offices and large businesses clearing to renew their stations. Some will be directly on ebay, others might sell in local ads etc. Just don't grab something that comes up cheap, always check the specs. Trying to be productive on something that struggles to open word and a few webpages is paaaaainful. 

[Creed1]

I got a used Macbook Pro 2012 (i5 3210m) (Using windows) for around $400 and then I threw in 16GB of memory and a 256 GB SSD and my total was $600. You would be fine with 128GB storage and 8GB of memory to save money. 

[chimado]

if you have a desktop get a chromebook for 200$, it's only for office internet and things like that.

[Metal_Kitty]

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-Touchscreen-Dual-Core-MaxxAudio/dp/B071DD8PFN
I found this - might be worth a quick look.. 

Swap out the HDD for an SSD - and you got a half decent laptop there! 

or go for the newer version for a few buscks more https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073W6J71R and once again swap out the HDD for an SSD

 

[ErrystioT]

If you want new and don't mind weight, there's this (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K1IO3QW/ref=s9_acss_bw_cg_cegwcacl_2a1_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=unified-hybrid-3&pf_rd_r=A0F4H9SFY66GH35NQ2B1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=56357203-cb8e-47af-9a1d-ed6ffde646bd&pf_rd_i=565108) Acer E 15 with i3-7100U, 1TB HDD, 4GB DDR4 RAM, 1080p panel and backlit keyboard. Though I recommend adding another 4GB stick for extra $40 if you have a lot of chrome tabs and you'll still be under your budget (about $400 total). And if you fancy an SSD, there's an empty M.2 2280 slot for you to do so